Halo X Mass Effect Crossover
Operation Noah
Chapter 3: The Queen and The Void
A/N: Greatatthinkingbadatwriting- Two great minds think alike. Unfortunately, I had a different plan for all of it, but you're about 91% accurate. If you have more possible ideas for this series and maybe future crossovers stories. It will be great to PM me the ideas and talk about them.
Max falcon: I have already established that Garrus will be Shepherd's boy toy; however, I am open to other romances that won't fit into this series. So no romances for this series. I have two back-burner stories that are going through consideration of publishing, so those two stories are open to romances.
Destroyer2003: Basically, but as I said, "Were it so easy."- Thel Vadam. I'll be exploring more of Maethrillian in the upcoming chapters.
Now that I addressed all the notable questions and critiques, it is time for the story to continue.
One week before Arrival
"Woah. That's unexpected," Cortana remarked with a bit of surprise.
"Indeed. Very surprising. The second humanity in this galaxy, very much unexpected," said Offensive Bias, "The information on this codex and Eye-From-The-Void's own examination of the galaxy, is giving us is invaluable information to achieve our goal. This genocide has only just begun."
"Yes, it has. This Commander Shepard has an impressive track record, defended Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz from 'Batarian Pirates'," Added Cortana her, voice dripping into a cold regard when she found that the species entire purpose was to enslave the other races and claim "superiority" over the galaxy. "I'm surprised that this humanity joined this "Citadel Council". After all their history of selective enforcement on their rules and laws."
"Yes, that is very problematic. I do not know what my makers would think about the Batarian Hegemony, but I would surmise that they would not let them enslave the species of the galaxy until they imploded or collapsed."
"The UNSC would never let the Batarians enslave their people or other species if they knew about it. The fact that the Council bought the idea that enslaving their species and others is part of their 'Cultural Heritage', is a legitimate reason to enslave the species of the galaxy," stated Cortana with increasing anger. "I'm just surprised that the Citadel Council didn't go to war against the Hegemony, and they would have been at better odds end with Humanity's government, The Systems Alliance."
"Yes they would, but we should return to the topic at hand."
"Yes, of course. Commander Shepard, full name: Xavierra Sophia Shepard, height 6'1", hair color, platinum blonde, eye color cerulean, weight 151 pounds, and born in daughter of Alliance N4 marine Michael Shepard and Hannah Shepard. Both parents are respectively serving aboard different ships and became well respected officers. Both married in their early thirties and conceived one child, that obviously being Commander Xavierra Shepard. Michael Shepard died in the line of duty during a pirate attack. Xavierra enlisted on April 11, 2172 as a Sentinel class marine then progressed to an N7 Paladin when N-training was completed. "Single Handedly" defended the colony Elysium in 2176 from 'Batarian pirates', took part in the Siege of Torfan in 2178, and was promptly promoted to commander shortly after. She was the one that warned the galaxy of the upcoming war for survival against these "Reapers"" said Cortana with a hint of disgust for the Reapers and their similar function to the Flood and how they assimilate organics into abominations.
"Their way of assimilation is disturbingly similar to the Flood; however, the only good out of all this is that their process is far slower than the Flood's organic assimilation."
"Will there be problems with their indoctrination capabilities," questioned Helix.
"That has long since been solved," replied Offensive.
"Explain" Cortana queried, a bit curious about how that he had already known the solution to it.
"The Thanolekgolo were used as combatants in the Forerunner-Flood war, but it failed to get any progress in the war. Many of the warrior-servants wanted to know how to block out or silence their battle hymn. Their battle hymn is very much similar in the way of infrasound and ultrasound waves. These Reapers use the same or similar frequencies by using electromagnetic fields instead of the Thanolekgolo's natural vocal cords. We had some specially made materials infused into the helmets of the warrior-servants."
"Is this material in my Spartans' armor already?"
"It can be within the hour if need be."
"Yes, good. Let us continue." Cortana elaborated.
"She was the one that repealed Saren, his Geth army, and the Reaper capital ship, Sovereign, from taking over the Citadel and executing the Councilors. The reason that the Council didn't retaliate is beyond me."
"That is very strange, yet would align with the Reapers plan to not have its victims be able to militarize right before their attack. Their respective governments didn't think that the attack on their central government and the turning of a Spectre isn't a good reason to go to war with the Geth. After all of that, I do not know what will get them to declare war on the threats that enclose. Hopefully, this pseudo-reclaimer can make peace with them and not make another species extinct."
"We can only hope. She did recently cure the Genophage for the Krogan people."
"Wonderful! It is marvelous that more species did not go extinct. Their history is eerily similar to the Jiralhanae."
"That's a bit of an understatement. They're brutal, savage, warlike, and nuked themselves back into more primitive and archaic times. The Salarians uplifting this species during their Rachni-Council war is understandable, but after they were done with them, they just let the young species run around with actual warships, WMD's, and no culture outside of war. The Krogan rebellions and the Genophage is nothing but the Salarians short-sightedness, and the Asaris lack of foresight on the obvious results of the short-sided decision of uplifting them."
"A very destructive decision that cost them dearly."
"Continuing, she saved the same Council, that for whatever reason, still denied that the ship was indeed a Reaper ship, and labeled it a new Geth Dreadnought. That reasoning of it being a Geth dreadnought just now means that their sizing you up for possible war. There is no reason that the Councilors of that event should even be having a job after the load of shit they pulled."
"..."
"Okay. Okay. Let's move on. She was sent to hunt down the remnant Geth forces. Did they actually believe..."
Cortana was shortly interrupted by Offensive bias' annoyance of being continuously driven off into a tangent,"Ancilla Cortana, lets us please continue with the history of the pseudo-reclaimer."
"Uh... Yeah. Let us continue unabated." Cortona meekly smiled before continuing.
"She was killed in an attack by what was the Reapers' indoctrinated Protheans, the Collectors. Two years later she was resurrected by the Human Supremacist /terrorist organization known as Cerberus. She organized a team to go through the mysterious Omega-4 relay and take down the Collectors and stop them from taking any more colonists. She disappeared for a week and was shortly after found in Systems Alliance custody for unknown reasons."
"Offensive Bias, what is the new threat level of these Reapers?" queried Helix.
"It will really depend on their numbers, power, and level of intelligence possessed by these Ancillas. It took a fleet or two to take down just one Reaper. We have some of the military capabilities of their navy, armed forces, intelligence organizations, and their doctrine of warfare. All the affected governments have had no effective doctrine, weapon, strategy, or a large standing navy and galactic unity for a common threat," replied Offensive Bias.
"Who has the largest standing navy?"
"The Quarian Migrant Fleet has around fifty thousand ships. However, that was after they went to war with the Geth yet again to take back their homeworld by force. Unfortunately, their navy is bad, even by their standards, and more so laughable by ours. The Turian Hierarchy have... or had the most powerful navy and military. They have been getting hammered away since the begin of this war. The Systems Alliance was quickly dealt with in the opening week of the first attacks. Virtually all of this happened in a the span of a week. The Reapers conquered the Batarian homeworld, human homeworld, and the turian homeworld were under siege within a week of each other."
"That doesn't bode well for us, and yet at the same time it does," stated Cortana.
"How is that so?" asked Helix a bit curious and concerned with the galaxies' current state of readiness for this war, it was very... disturbing.
"We know that their strength is from their blind side attacks with overwhelming force on their victims. If that is disrupted, it could make them adapt, if they can even do that anymore after so many millennia of this cycle, or being dormant can slow them down and buy the species time to fight back. While that is going on, we will be pushing them back."
"It is a sound strategy. Once we arrive we should contact this pseudo-reclaimer and shed some more light on the Reapers capabilities, and their ground forces."
"I'll call up my Spartans." Cortana added.
Shortly after Offensive Bias, Helix Sole, and Cortana were done with their shakedown of the basic information of the neighboring galaxy, and a more in-depth conversation in cyberspace.
Cortana is getting into contact with John, and the rest of Blue team were the first to be contacted. Fred and John were in the middle of a hand to hand training, and Fred is using his knives to attack John. She was going to let them continue till they finished, but that was ten minutes ago.
"Hey boys! I know that both of you are enjoying your hand-to-hand warm-ups, but we have some surprising information on the galaxy at war."
Fred chuckles softly at Cortana's little playful banter, "John and I have been going at it for the past hour!"
"An hour of it being 2 to 1," quipped John.
"Yeah yeah. Give me another hour and it will be 4 to 2."
"Okay boys, play nice. You are needed in the warrior-servant debriefing room for the recent updates," said Cortana before they continued into their matchup.
"Just step through," said Cortana as she gestured towards an open portal and had both Spartans walkthrough.
Cortana continued to search for her Spartans and found herself in the forest area of The Capital. The forest was in all intended purposes astonishing beautiful, with its unending Pine trees and Redwood trees. The forest wasn't at all artificial, it was natural and had its own ecosystem, water system to have it rain and supply fresh water from recycled wastewater to the medium-sized freshwater lakes and ponds. The animals were even stranger. There were wolves, elk, deer, rabbits, maybe some mice, insects of many purposes to the ecosystem, and maybe a bear in there; however, the animals were not that of Earth or any of her colonies, they were all very different, but oddly familiar. Cortana could see that Victor and Linda were sharing the same area of the forest, but they were in the middle of assassinating a target and gathering intel on enemy movements. It was a way of training a sniper to do assassination tactics, Black Ops, and ONI's infamous Head-Hunters. The training was to assassinate a stated target, gather the intel the target had on hand on of 'Covenant' movements, ship designs, the location of Human planets, and vacate the area. The only problem is the fact that Victor was the counter sniper to defend the target and keep the intel safe. Linda already successfully assassinated the target and was moving in on the building holding the intel, but Victor had other plans. Victor destroyed a wall of the prefab military building where the intel was being held, grabbed the intel and ran. Now it was a game of Hunting-The-Hunter. It has been two hours of Linda hunting down Victor and getting the intel off of him.
"Hey Linda, is this a bad timing?" whispered Cortana to Linda.
Linda said nothing, but did give 'shh' sound to Cortana and continued aim down sights to an unknown target. Cortana simply stood there until she took the shot and quickly broke into a sprit in the direction of her shot. A good seven miles later, Cortana and Linda come across Victor's 'dead' body and subsequently took the intel and ran for a couple miles and was in an opening to digital versions of UNSC personnel and handed off the briefcase of intel to the surrounding crew. Linda, of course, was successful in her training exercise and successfully completed the mission in under twelve hours.
"Is now a good time?" questioned Cortana with a bit of sass for making her wait for so long.
"Yes, Cortana. It's a good time now," Linda answered with just as much sass back.
"We have updates from The-Eye-From-The-Void on the situation in the upcoming galaxy. Go through and you will be greeted by the rest that is there."
"What about Victor?"
"He'll be there in a little bit. Nice shot by the way. The complement is of Victor."
With that statement, she steps through the portal to join the rest of the teams. While Cortana would continue to search for the rest of both Spartans teams for debriefing. She hopes what is being said by Void isn't true, that the Reapers assimilate their victims into their consciousness. They reminded her of the damn Flood that Offensive spoke of earlier when she had successfully recovered completely. She was told of her time with the Gravemind. She didn't want to remember her time with that abomination. She pushes this to the side and focus on the mission ahead Kill these abominations, save the day and get out. That is what she hopes to do, but nothing goes as planned.
Warrior-Servant Debriefing room
All of the Spartans arrive at the debriefing room and was seated around a large round table with a holoprojector of the galaxy the Spartans are going to. Offensive Bias gave out the summary of the galaxy's history and the current state of affairs. He then went in-depth about the Reapers and some of their capabilities. The Spartan was a bit disturbed by the mention of indoctrination of how it is transmitted from the ships ( A: N maybe their ground forces can do it too, but I don't know) to their victims. The Spartans asked if this will be a problem and were answered with the information of the Forerunner Warrior-Servants wanting a way to block out the now Maklegolo species' battle hymn. The Spartans were somewhat impressed by her achievements, but when the Spartans looked at the Alliance they were not as impressed.
"It is a good thing that there is a Humanity in this galaxy. Have them here makes everything for us much easier and convenient," said Margaret with some eased tensions of a second hostile contact of another species.
"And this Humanity is in some type of good relations with the other species of the galaxy, except for the First Contact War," added Cortana. "And that war was fought against the Turian Hierarchy when the Human Systems Alliance was trying to open a Relay, and that is illegal by Citadel law. The war resulted in favor of the Alliance of taking back their colony and the Citadel Council forced the Hierarchy into a ceasefire and the Alliance joining the Citadel as an associated species. That would be a god sent if our first contact war lasted as long as theirs."
"Meaning," asked John a bit curious about Cortana's statement.
"Theirs lasted all of three months, with six hundred twenty-three human casualties and around seven hundred turian casualties. This resulted in the galaxy seeing the humans as aggressive, giving the Alliance public a climate of xenophobia, and resulted in the formation of Terra Firma, and later on Cerberus. Both organizations are pro-human extremist groups with Cerberus being the thorn in the side of the Alliance for being able to take the xenophobia words of Terra Firma into the action of illegal experimentations, terrorist activities, sabotage, and assassinations."
"As of right now Reclaimers, it is believed that Terra Firma was dissolved and rejoined the Alliance for obvious reasons, but Cerberus has started to hinder the efforts of the galaxy to stop the Reapers and they will be seen as a threat and shot on sight," added Offensive Bias.
"And what is the status of the human Armed Forces and Navy?"
"This Humanity is a disappointment and even worse than that, I'm surprised that there wasn't a rebellion for the completely incompetent, inadequate, and horribly inefficient Colonial Defence forces," stated Roma, upset about the warfare tactics of the Systems Alliance."I think they are using the methods of Sun Tzu maxim 'He who defends everything defends nothing'. It is a good way of waging war when you're on the offense, but it's worthless once you're on the defensive side and fall into your own trap. Then these colonies are also poorly defended in the first place and easy targets for anyone attacking them."
Linda was the first to speak up the method of warfare, "They could get away with it if they kept the opponent on their heels, but if they don't they risk heavy losses on their colonies and that can hinder their war efforts."
John interrupted, "Let us focus on the need to form plans against the reapers, both in combat and contingency plans." Everyone nodded in agreement and John continued, "Bring up the galaxy map of the galaxy and its territory Cortana."
Cortana, of course, brought up the galaxy map with all its territory into sectors of Inner and Outer Council space, Systems Alliance space, the Attican Traverse, and the Terminus Systems. She then deployed the areas under attack by the Reaper forces and the names of the star systems and planets of importance to them. The Spartans already knew that the Systems Alliance's Earth already fell along with Khar'san and Taetrus, yet the turian homeworld Palaven was under heavy siege of Reaper forces. Next was the Hegemony and Alliance planets and colonies of the respective species; however, most if not all colonies were gone or under siege. The Batarians received the worst from the Reapers' invasion and virtually all of their territory is basically gone. Council space of the Turians and Asari were in the process of being overrun and some of the other neighboring species of the Drell, Hanar, and Elcor territories.
"What is in the red area here," questioned John.
"That area is the Terminus systems and there is very little information in and out of that area, except for the new Quarian-Geth war is now taking place in their home system," answered Cortana.
"Where will we be arriving in this galaxy and what is the Quarian-Geth war?"
Offensive was the one to speak up and answer John's question, "Yes reclaimer. We will be arriving in their Perseus Veil in one week. The Quarians are the makers of the created race known as the Geth. The Quarians created the Geth around three hundred years ago as cheap labor and the military force. Unfortunately, the Quarians panic when the ancillas asked questions about their purpose and waged war against their lesser ancillas. A war where their Citadel partners ignored their pleads of help; Furthermore, the Citadel Council betrayed everything that they stood for and in what you reclaimers might say,' put salt in the wounds' when they were removed from the Citadel and banned the Quarian people from recolonizing other worlds to rebuild their people."
"So, in other words, this galaxy is plagued by bureaucracy and self-serving politicians," said Cortana, adding to what was behind all of Offensive hidden anger of the Citadel Council's back-stepping of their word, and selective enforcement of their laws and rules.
"The scum of the Earth," added Kelly.
John was just analyzing the map and looking over the map for possible important targets for the Reapers and the targets that are already under siege. The Citadel is now acting as the refugee safe haven for all wartorn planets across the galaxy, and then John spoke up again, "Where is Commander Shepard?"
"She was last seen on the Citadel during an attempted coup d'etat of the Human Councilor Donnel Udina, and was backed by the terrorist organization of Cerberus," answered Cortana.
"Do we know of the Reapers' ship-to-ship abilities, ground forces of both sides, weapons, and movement of large fleets and forces," deadpanned John in a way of it being an order.
"Right to it then. It like it," smirked Cortana before continuing, "They primarily use electromagnetic cannons powered by a 'magical' element, element zero. The cannon can fire liquid alloys of iron, uranium, and tungsten at the fraction of the speed of light and that's there only weapon outside of their defensive pulse lasers systems for anti-capital ship missiles, torpedoes, fighters, and interceptors. They also have unmanned interceptors. Ground forces vary from Husks, Marauders, Cannibals, Brutes, Harvesters, and recently added Ravagers. Husks are assimilated humans, Marauders are turians, Cannibals are Batarians, Brutes are a mix of Krogan and turian, Harvesters are unknown to us, and the Ravagers are the Rachni with the match of thirty-five percent. Their ground force weapons are based on element zero mass accelerator. The weapons fire sand grain sized bullets traveling at high speeds for both forces, but the Galaxy's governments have much more variations of weapons."
"The Reaper ships movements are mostly focused on the Human and Turian space for the most part, with a lot of the associated species and the Asari worlds under siege. Salarian worlds are virtually untouched by the war except for their economy of course."
John was in the middle of thinking over all of the information that he has at the given moment and gave out a plan that could work," The first we need to do is to get into contact with Commander Shepard and get as much information as to what they are planning for the Reapers, Get a chance to speak with the Admirals, General, and the Councilors about their war efforts. The main plan of attack would to free up their war assets, warships, shipping lanes, and ease the pressure on possible soldiers and civvies."
"Where should we attack these Reapers once we are established?" asked Linda.
"Palaven, the Turian homeworld, then the surrounding systems. We are to liberate the entire solar system from the Reapers in ships and armed forces in Operation Bash and Mash."
"I know I call you a caveman a lot, but that doesn't mean you need to embrace it," chuckled Cortana at the Operations name.
John said nothing and continued onward," Operation Sun Dial for Asari territory, Operation Infinite Shining Light for the rest of the galaxy and surround associated species. We will apply WINTER CONTINGENCY to fit these operations along with adopting new protocol for our missions. WINTER CONTINGENCY is the result of Reaper ships and forces flooding a system with overwhelming force and the need for evacuation. HARVEST CONTINGENCY is the result when Reaper forces have successfully assimilated more than ninety percent of the planet's population, and any and all ships are authorized to use WMDs, and heavy orbital bombardment to destroy Reaper forces. Cole Protocol is revised to deny any and all technology of the Forerunner and UNSC technology to be captured by enemy forces and if so, friendly forces. Office of Naval Intelligence Security Protocols are unchanged for first contact. Any question?"
There were none and they continue to figure out a plan to deal with the Reapers and what they might do when they arrive and how they would react to their arrival. Some of that was addressed by the inclusion of WINTER CONTINGENCY and some others were addressed. Kelly brought up the idea that the Reaper could respond to them by speeding up the assimilation of the other species in spite of our efforts to protect them. The idea is a possibility, but the likelihood of the Reapers doing that would mean they would know the motive of the Spartans and Offensive. Then it was the idea that the Systems Alliance was hiding valuable forces and ships from the galactic community. The idea of the Alliance hiding some major forces and ships wasn't too far off when they included that the galaxy was filled with bureaucrats and by the reports of Void, that the galactic community isn't united in any serious way of fighting the Reapers. This was a major surprise to the Spartans to know that they were basically setting themselves up for failure. Then to add insult to injury, the Asari and Salarians are not very active outside of their borders and have the highest risk of being surrounded and cut off from the rest of the galaxy for any aid to repeal any Reaper forces and both were not that good in warfare, especially the Salarians.
Offensive came up with an idea to appease the galactic leaders by freeing up their homeworlds and colonies for the promise of terraforming destroyed worlds and uninhabitable planets. Appeasing the Krogan leader Urdnot Wrex could be easier with Offensive building a special hammer and maybe a shotgun for him. The Spartans had made sure that all of their ships (warships, fighters, interceptors, bombers, and the Promethean Knights) could be independently controlled by smart AIs or dumb AIs as well as being controlled by Offensive Bias. All of the ships can still be piloted by a person and be staffed with a crew, with sentinels and huragoks running the maintenance, loading of ammunition, and pods for the Promethean Knights.
They went on with the Asari's natural ability in their biotics, or telekinetics by the UNSC could prove difficult if large portions of their populace were assimilated would be problematic. Offensive Bias said that they could make there would telekinetics into the suits like the Ur-Didact had in his. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be done for an extra two months into the invasion plan. That had to wait, but the Spartans would push forward with or without it. The Spartans continued on talks on possible invasion plans and ways to work around the galaxy's bureaucrats. John asked if the M510 Mammoth could be redesigned as a artillery or mortar platform along with a overhaul of the AC-220 Vulture. Cortana laughed with glee of John's request and subsequently ran the designs to Helix Sole for improvement. Everything was nicely tuned, but some of it would have to come from Commander Shepard, the Admirals, and Generals on the possible theaters they might be needed in. All of that will have to wait till they arrive and start doing what they do best-waged war.
Mass Effect Galaxy Maskim Xul System
"Yeah, shuttle just arrived. You better get moving, Team Two. See anything, let me know," said a very young and inexperienced krogan soldier over comms.
"Grunt?" asked Shepard, walking out with EDI and James Vega close behind. Shepard was carrying her favorite new shotgun the Venom shotgun from the Salarian Special Tasks Group, along with her M-9 Tempest and the N7 Eagle. Shepard was still a bit tired from here exercise section of working her biotics and making sure she could still hack into most equipment. She was a Paladin when she wasn't a spectre and not part of Cerberus. She still kinda missed her shield, but no matter she shall move forward.
"Shepard!" yelled Grunt a bit surprised and excited to see Shepard, his Battlemaster and giving her a heavy hug while laughing."Heh! Shepard! Heh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"What are you doing here Grunt?" asked Shepard, now rubbing her shoulder.
"I could ask the same question. Didn't those idiots lock you up?"
"They did. Put me in lockdown to keep the Batarians off me. Didn't want problems with the Council when they were preparing for war. But as you know the galaxy went to shit and here we are."
"Heh-ha-ha. Yeah, they got bigger fish to fry now!"
"That's why I'm out here running Aralakh Company. They're tough, think they are invincible. Reckless, but effective."
Shepard chuckles for a second before speaking, "Sounds familiar, Grunt. How did you go from being new and untested to your own command?"
"Ha, wasn't easy. When Wrex put Aralakh Company together, he needed a leader who represented the future of our species. Thanks to you, I completed my Rite of Passage on Tuchanka and became part of Clan Urdnot. I was an equal. And being the strongest, I was chosen to lead this honored company."
"I bet that some Krogan didn't like having a tank-bred krogan leading them?"
"I collected a few scars earning my place her. they respect me."
"You were a pain in the ass, Grunt, but if your krogan are half as good as you, we might make it out of here."
"Heh! Glad you're here to crack some heads, Shepard. Hard to believe this might be Rachni. It seems crazy. The Rachni!" said Grunt chuckling to himself before continuing," A chance to face an old enemy? Impossible to resist!"
"We don't know if the Rachni had anything to do with this. We're here to find the scouts. I didn't see any signs of activity during our approach."
"Agreed. But this place smells wrong. Like a bad wound. Our scans show the tunnels down there lead to a large central point. If we're lucky, it's a nest."
James inquired into the conversation at the mention of nests, "Rachni have nests?"
Grunt doesn't answer James' question, but he gives a toothy grin and laughs. "Aralakh Company move out!" shouted Grunt at his underlings to move, and were quick to respond with hearty roars, and ran down to base camp where the scout camp used to be. "Grab what you need, Shepard. Meet me at the scout camp ahead."
"Sounds good," said Shepard as she walks into the nearby shack for supplies, and finds a spare M-300 Krogan shotgun, a pistol mod, and spare parts that she could sell for credits. She quickly leaves the shack the and headed towards the campsite below.
"What do you think we'll find here, Commander?" quired James a bit nervous, but not scared.
" I don't know, Lieutenant, but keep your weapon handy."
"Always."
Shepard's team continued onwards to the scout campsite into a dangerously unstable shack. Halfway through the shack, the shack collapses into the sinkhole below with Shepard's team getting bruised and disconnected from Aralakh Company. Get back! screamed Grunt at the collapsing shack."Shepard! Still in one piece?" yelled Grunt.
"We're good. Keep in radio contact," yelled Shepard.
"On our way!"
Shepard's team make their way onto what looks like a pathway and a dead Krogan at the end.
"Something up ahead," said EDI pointing out the dead krogan.
"I see it. Grunt got the body of a scout here Been dead a few days now."
"Yeah? If he has his weapon, grab it. He won't be needing it anymore," answered Grunt, as Shepard binds over to grab the krogan's flamethrower.
Shepard, now with a flamethrower in hand uses it to burn a webbing like barrier, blocking her team's entry point. James spoke up on if the blockage was any type of webbing, but it will go unanswered, and Shepard asserting that they should stay frosty. Shepard and team moved further into the dark tunnels and everyone flicks on their lights to see better. James annoyingly breaks the silence," Stay sharp people."
"Agreed. Everybody be ready?" asked Shepard as three little things just scurried across their flashlights.
"Movement, we've got movement."
"Confirmed," answered EDI to James statement and easily picking it up on her motion sensors.
Shepard continues forward into the dark tunnels and burns the closest barrier of webbing in front of her, and she burnt something of an egg or pod sac thing. EDI said something, but Shepard just ignored it and burnt the pods that were in her way when some of them exploded.
"Damn it!" said James with a suppressed yell with getting sprayed by an acidic like substance.
"Careful where you step," said EDI, slowly moving about the acidic puddles.
Shepard continued to burn the pods unabated, but keeping her distance for the acidic to dissolve. Shepard continued deeper into the tunnels burning in webbing and pods in her way She continued up a small slope to be greeted by more pods, webbing, and some metal plates on the wall and cables running across the floor. 'Must be Reaper tech. I knew this place was off. EDI spoke up and only confirmed what Shepard thought, "Note the wires, Shepard, Reaper technology."
"Noted"
Shepard continues to burn pods and webbing alike until she runs out of fuel for her flamethrower. 'Damnit. I was just having fun too.' said Shepard thinking to herself on the loss of her flamethrower. She then spent the rest of her fuel to burn the webbing off an area of the tunnels to see another dead krogan with a flamethrower. ' Must be my lucky day,' said Shepard still thinking to herself. Burning another webbed off area, she comes to an open area with a small cliff to jump down to. Shepard looks around to find a settle low pitch noise and finds an indoctrinated Rachni drone. The drone gives out a terrible hiss and jumps down to the platform below. Shepard's team ready their weapons for combat and Shepard drops her flamethrower for her shotgun and quickly takes cover. EDI and James quickly follow suit with Shepard and takes cover.
"Grunt, we got company!" yelled Shepard as she shot at the mobile shield generator.
"Light'em, Shepard!"
"EDI, Incinerate that Ravager! James cut down the Husks!" yelled Shepard as the Ravager laid down suppressing fire on her.
The team said nothing and did as told, and EDI successfully gaining the attention of the Ravager after her incineration hit it. Shepard delivers a warp right behind EDI's incineration, charges up her shotgun and took aim at the Ravager. After two seconds of charged time, Shepard released the triggered and scored a direct hit and kill the Ravager. Shepard now turns her attention to the husks rushing the position of Lieutenant James and trying to grapple him into melee range. Shepard quickly helps out James by delivering an biotic throw to the nearest husk and gunning down the rest of the husks with her shotgun.
"Well we now know what happened to the Rachni," said James looking at the decaying corpse of the Ravager.
"Agreed," stated EDI.
"Grunt, Rachni presence confirmed. Modified and very dangerous," said Shepard.
"Finally, something to kill! Nothing here yet. Lost a Krogan to a sinkhole. Bad way to go."
"Shepard, more Reaper tech," said James pointing out the tall Reaper-like structures lining the walls of the tunnels.
"The nest has to be close by. The significant amount of Reaper forces indicates we are on the right path," added EDI.
"Agreed," said Shepard as she burns more pods.
Shepard picked up her flamethrower where she once was and jumped across a little gap in the tunnel floor to the other side. Coming across another dead Krogan with a flamethrower and a shotgun next to him, I'll be taking both of those,' said Shepard thinking to herself and picking up the unused flamethrower and mod before continuing onward. She continues to burn more pods and webbing until she is blocked by a Reaper door like barrier.
"A barrier Shepard," said EDI stating the obvious.
"Copy that."
"How are we getting through this?" asked James.
Shepard burns down a webbed off area of the tunnel to see the was the three-pronged object and what the dead Krogan have on hand. "Reaper tech?" asked James.
Shepard does the most sensible thing and shoots the Reaper tech thing until it explodes and sends out a loud ping throughout the cave tunnels.
"It was a locking mechanism," said EDI.
Shepard burns another webbing barrier,'This webbing and pods are really starting to get on my nerves' mumbled Shepard as she and her team heard a loud screech and rumbling from above. Rocks and pebbles start to fall from above and the team wises up and jump out of the area, before being crushed.
"Anyone injured?" asked EDI, as she gets her medi-gel ready for use.
"Looks like we're finding another way out of here. Come on!" said Shepard, getting herself off the ground.
"What was that noise, Shepard. Sounded bad," said Grunt over comms.
"Cave-in. We're alright," responded Shepard as more little creepy crawlers scurried away on the cave's floor.
"Good. Didn't want to dig you out."
"That hurts my feelings, Grunt," said Shepard as she burns more pods.
"Yeah, yeah," said Grunt dismissively.
Shepard pushes onward burning more pods and watching little creepy crawlers until Grunt speaks to her over comms," Shepard, I know what happened to the scouts."
"What you find?"
"They got hit hard. The leader ordered them to carry weapons into the caves. He knew the next team would need help."
Shepard continues to burn pods and webbing alike before continuing, "They died making sure we could make it to the central chamber. Come on!"
Shepard burns her way through the webbing and pods to reach another dead Krogan with a datapad, "Looks like a last message. He's asked that it be delivered to an Asari named Ereba on the Citadel."
"Another hall Shepard," said EDI.
"Expect trouble," replied Shepard, and seconds later are greeted by Reaper forces. Shepard's team quickly rush to cover and start to gun down any husks that come their way.
"James! Frag the generator!" yelled Shepard, "EDI incinerate that Ravager!"
"On it!" said both James and EDI.
James successfully takes down the generator and the few husks that were close enough to be damaged by the grenade. EDI and Shepard use incinerate and warp respectively to take down the ravager, but it's not enough and the Ravager lays down suppressing fire on both EDI and Shepard.
"James! Frag the Ravager!" yelled Shepard taking pod shots at it with her pistol.
"Frag out!" yelled James as he lobs the grenade at the Ravager, and kills it. Shepard quickly follows it up with a biotic throw towards the husks that are still coming her way, and dispatches them with ease; however, the Cannibals were laying on the pressure. Shepard quickly pulls out her shotgun, leaves cover, and charges forward with her shotgun. Shepard charges up her shotgun and release it and kills one of the three remaining Cannibals. She quickly enters cover from the shots from the other Cannibal and orders James to use tech skill carnage on one Cannibal and she uses biotic warp on the other. "Okay, Move up!" ordered Shepard as she justs over her cover and advance to the other side of the cave.
"Advancing," responded EDI.
"Moving up, Commander," replied James.
With Shepard dashing to the other side of the tunnel and quickly sees the generator in the middle of the room and instinctively gets into cover and charges up her shotgun as more Ravagors come out of a small tunnel on the far side of the room. "Stay low! Don't let it get a bead on you!" said Shepard as she takes down one of the Ravagers with her shotgun. With Shepard in the thick of things, she orders James to Frag the Barrier generator and EDI to incinerate the other Ravager, while Shepard will follow it up with a biotic warp. Shepard and EDI overwhelm and take down the ravager, and she gives the order to focus on Cannibals while Shepard deals with the husks. The rest of the Reaper forces are quickly dispatched and Shepard runs to retrieve her flamethrower until Grunt called over comms," We must be getting close Shepard. Some heavy fighting. Tough bastards!"
"Casualties?"
"It's fine. Krogan fight better angry."
Shepard is now making her way towards the other side of the cave and burn more pods,'More of these damn things?' asked Shepard to no one important, but herself as she drops down another little cliff.
"More of these little bastards!" yelled James as he shots the little crawlers as they hatch.
Shepard continues to burn the eggs and pods with little resistance from the hatchlings. The Rachni favor highly toxic environments for breeding, but this atmosphere is breathable," said EDI, pondering on why the Rachni are on this planet in particular.
"These do not look like regular Rachni, EDI," replied James to EDI question of the favored environment of the Rachni. "The Reapers must have changed them."
The team continued forward in silence killing and destroying the eggs and hatchling in them until James broke the silence, "You know what? I think they're breeding an army of those down here. It all adds up. They reproduce crazy fast, and out here? Nobody will know until it's too late."
"I agree," said Shepard in complete agreement with him and the large amount of pods and eggs that they destroyed was another clue. "They're throwing everything they got at us so we don't reach the nest."
The quickly burned and shot the upcoming eggs from a safe distance and rush past the hatchlings and stepping on them in the process and jumping over a crevasse. Shepard's team quickly sprint down a small slope towards the sounds of gunfire and see Aralakh Company fighting a bunch of Ravagers."Shepard, we're blocked! And getting overrun!" said Grunt over comms as he charges into a Ravager and picks it up and throws it over the edge.
"Hang on, Grunt. I'm on it!" said Shepard as she runs towards more webbing and burns it.
"Move it, Shepard."' I AM KROGAN!' yelled Grunt as Shepard moved out of earshot.
She quickly gets into a small little room and finds the door controls. "There's the Switch!" said James, stating the obvious.
"Come on. hurry!"
She reaches the door controls and quickly burns it to a crisp and a loud screech and tremors are heard all around them. "Thanks, Shepard. That wasn't webbing stopping us. That was Reaper tech," says Grunt as the rest of his company jumps into the room as the Rachni retreats.
"We ran into it too."
"Rachni has backed off, for now, but they can smell our wounds. Any worthy enemy would regroup and finish us. Soon."
We're close, Grunt. Those barriers were protecting whatever's down that passage," said Shepard pointing towards the path behind Grunt.
"We'll dig in here, kill anything that moves, buy you some time."
"Good luck."
"I don't need luck, I have ammo."
Shepard just smiled in responding, I have taught you well, Grunt' thought Shepard.
"Krogan! Get ready," said Grunt as he took up frontal positioning.
Shepard and team make their way to the cave opening, but Shepard quickly picks up Medi-gel and a shotgun mod from a dead Krogan before continuing into the tunnels.
"Heads up, more eggs and more of the little bastards!" yelled James as more little crawlers scurried away on the cave floor.
"Watch your step," said Shepard as her legs get covered in acid from the dozens of exploding egg sacks. Shepard quickly dispatches the eggs in her way and starts to crawl through a small crack where the crawlers went to, and she had her pistol ready with anything happens.
"Anybody here is claustrophobic, right?" asked Shepard as she really wanted to get in and out of this confined space as quickly as possible.
"No, but I really wish I was Liara right now." replied James, "Ow! Next time let's just bombard it from orbit." said James as he pushed himself past a tight spot of the confined space.
"It would be easier, but we do not have the ships for such means," said EDI.
"Don't worry it won't belong. There's a light up ahead," said Shepard as she starts to crawl faster.
"Oh thank god!" responded James.
Shepard and her team quickly crawl out of the confined space and quickly get on their feet. "What is that!?" said James as the first to see the ugly creature in the center of the room.
"Grunt, we have located the central chamber."
"Good! We got your back Shepard!"
As Shepard's team makes their way to the creature in the central chamber, they accidentally set off a chain reaction of barriers around them."Move it!" yelled Shepard as her team rushes to the central chamber. Unfortunately, they are unsuccessful in their pursuit to reach the chamber before the barriers block them in. "Damnit!"
"Where's the switch?" half-yelled James."
"Up there," said EDI pointing towards the upper left section of the door to the chamber. Shepard quickly shoots the switch and the barriers on their left start to recede back.
"Heavy resistance!" yelled EDI.
"This is it people!" yelled Shepard as she took cover behind a boulder and lobed a lift grenade towards the Cannibal.
Shepard quickly takes out her Tempest and gun down two husks rushing her position. She quickly has to dive out of cover and roll out of the way of a thrown grenade by a Cannibal and sends a tech overload to a Marauder bearing down on her. With the Marauder dazed she quickly orders James to use carnage on the marauder and kills it with a tech explosion. Shepard is forced back into cover for the Ravager is depleting her shields, but a husk outmaneuver her team and lunge at her and grapple her. She quickly grabs the husk by the neck and tosses it to the ground and stoops on its head; however, the Ravager is successful at bringing down her shields and depleting her health, but it is not enough for her to stay down. She quickly applies media-gel and waits for her shields to recharge. When they do She order EDI to use incinerate on the Ravager and James a frag grenade, followed up by Shepard's warp. The Ravager is quickly dispatched with and releases its hatchling upon death. Shepard's team shot the little bastards as quickly as they come, while Shepard rushes to the switch and shoot it. "Come on! We gotta get past these barriers!" yelled Shepard.
"The walls are coming down on the far side!" yelled James as Shepard sends a biotic throw towards a husk.
Shepard quickly ready her flamethrower and uses it on the charging husks and some suppressing fire on the Ravager in front of her. The fuel quickly depletes and she discards it for her pistol to quickly finish it off. Running to the other, a pair of Cannibals start to shoot at Shepard as she hurries into cover. She quickly peeks out and lobs a grenade at their position and are quick to move out of the are, but the grenade goes off and kills them both. A sneaky Marauder gets the jump the jump on Shepard with a few melee strikes. She quickly gives it a melee strike of her own and continues to beat it to death with her weapon. She enters cover to see that a husk grappled James and is trying to scratches at his face and EDI being suppressed by the pair of Ravagers. "They are not letting up!" yelled EDI ducking from the Ravagers suppressing fire. Shepard quickly orders EDI to incinerate the husk attacking James and Shepard sends out a biotic warp towards the advancing Cannibal and followed up by a few shots of her pistol. The Cannibal quickly goes down and that only leaves the Ravagers and the Marauder. Shepard takes out her shotgun and quickly charges it and fires a full thermal clip into the pair of Ravagers. She orders EDI to use tech overload on the shields of the Marauder and James to carnage it afterwards; as a result, the Marauder dies in a tech explosion and Shepard rushes to the control switch.
"Their numbers are staggering!" yelled EDI as she gunned down a husk crawling out a crevasse in the wall.
"Keep it up people!" responded Shepard as she picks up a flamethrower and rushes forward. She grew careless in her actions as she rushed the Ravagers and her shields were completely depleted by the sustained fire of the Ravager that she didn't kill and the Cannibals shooting her. She quickly orders James to frag the closest Cannibal to her and EDI to incinerate the next Cannibal over while she guns down the last of the husks and cannibals.
"Shepard, the Rachni are backing off!" yelled Grunt over comms, "Whatever spooked them won't last. Finish the job."
"Copy that," said Shepard as her squad prepared to enter the central chamber, were greeted by a big, ugly, fat, looking creature chained to the walls of Reaper barrier tech.
"Si...lence," said the now speaking Krogan corpse, and making James jump in fear and surprise.
"What The Hell!"
"The...maddening sour note has ceased." said the still talking Krogan corpse, and it's still creepy.
"What are?" asked Shepard as she stepped towards the creature in the room.
"The Last Queen. We listen for the children... they are silent, hollow." answered the Rachni Queen as EDI and James readied their weapons of all of the now talking dead Krogan ... Creepy! "The machines come and take them to war. They die alone, silent, far away."
"The Reapers did this to you?"
"Yes. The sour note of the machines is everywhere."
"I let you go on Noveria, you promised not to interfere anymore. The Rachni were supposed to disappear."
"We remember. We kept our promise, retreated back through the relay," said The Queen as EDI starts to analyze the talking krogan around her, "We started a new home. Beautiful children. Harmony. But... the machines came. They heard our song. Their shrieks of our notes drowned us out."
"They can't hurt you anymore."
"Yes, we ... understand."
"Can you still feel the Reapers? Can they still influence you?"
"We hear machines, but they can't control us. Remove this shackle and we are free," said the Queen as she points towards the switch node to her left."What? The children return. They will destroy us all Release us!"
"Shepard, we're getting movement here. A lot of movement" said Grunt over comms.
"Copy that, Grunt. Are you capable of fighting the Reapers?"
"We hate the machines. We will fight for our unborn children. Release us!"
"She's a mess. She needs too much time to escape!" proclaimed James, as the area around them, started to quake and light debris of rubble started to fall. Grunt crackles over comms and says," Shepard, we're out of time! we stay here, Aralakh Company dies! Is that clear?"
"Listen up! Aralakh Company holds them the Rachni off while the queen escapes. We'll buy you some time. Grunt, fall back to our position and lead us out!"
"Damn you, Shepard! I'm leaving my team. On my way!"
"Commander?" asked EDI, questioning her orders."
"That's an order! She is too valuable an asset to lose!" quipped Shepard as she walks up to the switch and shoots it with her pistol to release the queen.
The queen successfully gets out and lets out a weird sounding 'thank you' shriek. "Now get us out of here!" said Shepard as Grunt destroyed and cave wall with his shotgun. Grunt quickly rushes Shepard and her team through some caves and tunnels and over a bridge as Grunt shoots down any encroaching on their position. They continue with haste when they round a corner littered with dozens of Ravagers blocking their way, and quickly jump back behind the wall they turned from.
"Shuttle's down that path! I'll hold them off!" half-yelled Grunt.
"Grunt that is..." said Shepard as she was interrupted by Grunt.
"I don't want to here it Shepard! Now get out of here, Shepard!"
"'Sighs' I'll miss you Grunt," said Shepard as she gave him a half hug.
"You too, Shepard"
Shepard and her team quickly charge into the direction of the shuttle while Shepard mumbles to herself,' Please not another one. Not the badass baby krogan.'
"My turn heh heh heh," said Grunt as he rushed forward stomping and shooting the ravagers as he worked his way forward until he was tackled by a Ravager. He quickly picks up a broken cannon part off a dead Ravager and starts to beat the other Ravagers to death with it. Another Ravager tries to tackle him, but he catches it and slams it to the ground. Grunt rushes forward in a blood rage batting away any Ravagers in his way as he makes his way to a Ravager near a cliff and tackles over the abyss, out of the frying pan and into the fire.
"Cortez, were the last ones out," said Shepard, out of breath from running for so long.
"Copy that Commander. The shuttle is waiting."
Just as Shepard was about to get on the shuttle, she looked back for one last time to make sure she actually left Grunt down there. But sure enough there he was. Covered in blood & guts of the Rachni and maybe some wounds of his own."Grunt!?" yelled Shepard, surprised to see him, but also happy that he is still alive. Grunt managed to mumble something, "Anybody got... Something to...eat?" said Grunt as he collapses into Shepard's arms, struggling to stay up.
"Cortez! Prep the medic-vac, pronto!" yelled Shepard as she struggles to keep grunt from falling over.
"On it!" responded Cortez.
"Don't worry Grunt you're going to make it."
SSV Normandy SR-2 After mission report/ Debriefing room
"I'm reviewing your report on the rachni situation, Commander. This could have gotten complicated, fast. I hope you know what you're doing, cutting a deal with the rachni queen. We got burned last time. I'm trusting your instincts, Commander," said Admiral Hackett.
"We can on her support, Admiral," responded Shepard.
Admiral nodded in agreement and replied, "But, we cut the Reaper supply of new Rachni troops and picked up some additional krogan support, I call that a victory. I have an update on the three anomalies near the Perseus arm. The scientists are flabbergasted by the speed of the now designated 'Knife ships' of dreadnought size. And yes we got into visual range to get a rough outline."
"How so?" asked Shepard with a bit curious.
"We do not know how they do it, nor do the scientist know the answer to that question. But whoever pilots the ship could easily go to one side of the galaxy to the other in a few hours. The power behind each ship is incredible and each have the power output of the Citadel twelvefold for a full year, at least."
Shepard was absolutely stunned by the sheer power of the ships, "Where are the ships now? Will they be a problem in the near future?"
"We do not know. We do have sightings of them in the Terminus systems, Asari, Salarian, Turian, and Alliance space. All the sightings were within hours of each other. The Council Species attempted communications and warnings of threats, but all ended in their respective systems being scanned for information," said Hackett pausing when a soldier whisper something into his ear and walked away before continuing, "They did try to get some important information by scanning, but nothing too classified; however, their way of scanning is very violate to the ships' computer systems."
"What kind of information? Will they be a threat to us?"
"Fleet strength, ship numbers, economic centers, planets, ship armament & weapons, infantry armor & weapons, military vehicles & civilian, Reaper forces & capabilities, Reaper movements, and you and your location." Shepard raised a brow at the last one, but she knew if whoever they were, they probably run into her record sooner or later."All is formation gathering really sounds like..."
"Like someone is planning an attack."
"Exactly. But the only problem is on who. They didn't show any hostilities to us or any other species, but that might change in the future. I make sure to get the scientist that are on it to find a way to track it," said Hackett until he was interrupted by another soldier delivering info to me."I have to leave, Commander. Hackett out."
Commander Shepard was then left to her own thoughts and speculation on the three ships and all of the information they were gathering on the galaxy at large. To add to all of this we could be facing a damn war on two fronts.'A a perfect way to lose a war is war on multiple fronts.' mumbled Shepard. She heads towards the Galaxy map to quickly dropping off Grunt at Huerta Memorial Hospital and leaving to meet the Quarian Admirals. She wasn't in the best of moods when she has been fighting Cerberus for the past two days."Joker. Takes us to the Far Rim," stated Shepard ready for the horseshit she about to be told and repeating herself to the Admirals, 'The pen is mightier than the sword' said Shepard, thinking to herself.
"Aye, aye Commander."
5 days til Arrival, Far Rim System
"Commander Shepard. A pleasure to see you again, though I wish it were under better circumstances," said Admiral Raan, as her and her fellow admirals encircled the war room.
"I'd hope to get your support in the fight against the Reapers. What's going on?" asked Shepard, already annoyed and knew the answer to it.
"Seventeen days ago, with precision strikes on four geth systems, the quarians initiated the war to retake our homeworld," responded Admiral Gerrel.
"Which was a clear violation of our agreement with the Council to avoid provoking the geth!" exclaimed Admiral Koris.
"A treaty violation is nothing compared to recovering our homeworld and advanced AI technology," stated Admiral Xen.
"Your homeworld? You mean Rannoch?" questioned Shepard.
"Correct, Commander. Three hundred years ago, we lost our world to our own AI creations, the geth," answered Raan.
"After we attempted to kill them," quipped Koris.
"We didn't try to kill them, Koris. We tried to deactivate them. It wasn't murder," said Xen, with a bit of annoyance in her tone.
"No, it was murder," said Shepard in deadpanned voice.
"Commander, the quarians never intended to create a true AI. It was an accident," said Raan.
"Which you chose to correct by trying to kill them," stated Shepard quickly responding to Raan's statement.
"Don't bother," said Koris speaking in the absence of his fellow Admirals before continuing, "Admitting we were wrong would undercut the justification for this suicidal invasion plan."
"You're throwing yourselves at the Geth? Again?" said Shepard, getting more annoyed by the second and knowing what was going to happen.
"And this time, we may have destroyed our people for good."
"We'd driven the geth back to the home system when this signal began broadcasting ships," said Admiral Gerrel as he brings up Rannoch and the Migrant Fleet.
"The Reapers," said Shepard knowing who was broadcasting the signal.
"Under Reaper control, the geth are significantly more effective. Our fleet is pinned in the home system. If we're going to win," said Gerrel before Korris interrupts him, "Win!? You insisted on involving the civilian ship ships Admiral Gerrel! We need to retreat or we'll lose the liveships?" exclaimed Admiral Koris.
"Where is the signal coming from," asked Shepard.
"Here. A Geth Dreadnought. It can outgun anything we've got, and it's heavily defended," replied Admiral Gerrel.
"The Normandy's stealth drive can get us in undetected. I could board, then disable the Reaper command signal."
"Yes, cutting off the signal should throw the geth into complete disarray," stated Admiral Xen.
"And while they're confused, you get to a mass relay and retreat."
"Good. Our civilian ships have seen too much fighting already. Are you certain you can disable the signal," questioned Admiral Korris?
"We'll get you out of there safely, Admiral."
"Our newest Admiral has also volunteered to offer technical expertise..." said Admiral Raan, introducing the Quarian Fleets newest Admiral.
"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, reporting for duty."
"Glad you could make it, Tali," said Shepard with hidden anger and joy for her teammate promotion. 'Great! Now everyone is going to be outranking. All though I am a Spectre, a promotion would be great.' said Shepard thinking to herself before continuing, "Admirals, I'll ready a team to hit that dreadnought."
"Thank you, Commander," respond Admiral Raan, as the Quarian Admirals started to leave the war room and heading back to there mysteriously advanced stealth vessel. Now alone with Tali, Shepard decides to talk with her in the conference room.
"Admiral," asked Shepard.
"It's mostly a formality. I'm an expert on the geth," answered Tali.
"That you are."
"Heh. I'm glad you're here."
"If I'd known it was this bad, I would have come sooner."
"You've had your own troubles. I'm sorry about Earth. We've got the largest fleet in the galaxy. If you can help us, we'll hit the Reapers with everything we've got. Or how much is left from this stupid war."
"I thought you would support the invasion."
"No. After talking to legion, I thought maybe there was a chance for peace."
"So why help them?"
"I'm an admiral. People look to me for guidance. Public disagreement would divide the fleet."
"I'll get your..." said Shepard before getting interrupted by EDI.
"Commander! I have detected three spacial anomalies on the far side of the solar system!"
"Spacial anomalies?" asked Shepard as she quickly makes her way past the security checkpoint.
"Wormholes and Cherenkov radiation. They are the three mysterious ships that Admiral Hackett as designated as 'Knife ships'. They are starting to AAAAHHHH!" yelled EDI as the three anomalies started to scan the Normandy.
"EDI!" exclaimed Joker as the scan past through the cockpit and then the rest of the ship, "EDI, get us out of here!"
" aaaaa Mmmmm b b being dis dis dis dis rrrrupteet. rive ccccorrre i be iiiiiinnnnng sssscccccaned," responded EDI with a lot of chopping and stuttering in her voice.
"Joker, take over and get us out of here! Are the Admirals' ship still in system?" exclaimed Shepard.
"They exited seconds before their arrival," answered Joker, as he pulls a hard turn and rushes for the relay to go to the Quarian Homeworld.
"Joker, how is she doing?"
"The Normandy or EDI?"
"Both."
"The Normandy has fried systems all around the ship, nothing a tactician or engineers can't fix. Drive core is acting funny. Some marines have just reported jammed or useless small arms. And James is on the line."
"What is it, Mr. Vega? ... What? Are you sure it's not your weight bench or something? Yeah yeah. James really needs to see you in the Shuttle Bay, Commander. He's really freaking out about it."
"Tali see what you can do the Normandy's systems until we start our mission. Joker, raise EDI and get her back into working order. Garrus meet down in the Shuttle bay," said Shepard over team comms and ship comms.
"Aye, aye Commander," replied Joker.
"Aye, aye Shepard," said Tali and Garrus over comms.
Shepard quickly made haste to the elevator with Joker cursing about the jerks messing with his girlfriend, and Specialist Traynor saying something of her controls going haywire and having to hard resetting it without EDI's before contacting James over Omni-tool,"James, what would warrant my attention in the Shuttle bay after this massive disruption in Normandy's systems?"
"I have no idea Commander. The thing just appeared out of nowhere. Caja de aspecto extrano!"
"Say again, James? The last part?"
"What Mr. Vega just said is,'Freaky looking box,' and it is just that, a weird looking box," said Lieutenant Steve Cortez, interrupting lieutenant James Vega.
"Okay? On my way," responded Shepard with a bit a concern of the appearance of an unknown object in her Shuttle bay, but she continued to ride the elevator down in silence when it stopped at the Crew Deck.
"Shepard, any idea what's down in the shuttle bay?" asked Garrus, getting into the elevator with Shepard.
"I do not know, Garrus, but we're about to find out."
"I bet fifty credits Liara already there, Shepard," said Garrus, breaking the silence of the elevator.
"You're on!"
Now arriving at the Shuttle bay, they could finally see what's all the fuss about the freaky looking back. They both could see the box was a jet black box with orange glowing linings, and it was floating? Liara wasn't already down there to Garrus dismay and loss of credits.
"James, what is this?" asked Shepard.
"I have no idea Lola, but it as I said earlier appeared at of nowhere."
"Have any of you try scanning it?"
"No. We haven't even tried getting close to it," replied Cortez.
Shepard was left with what to do with the strange box and see what it was doing in her shuttle bay directly after an encounter with the anomalies.
"Keep this thing on lockdown. I do not want it to let alone move without my permission. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir," said the lieutenants and the surrounding marines that encircled the weird box.
"Have Liara try to scan it when for possible purpose, and Cortez, are our weapons still functional?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Dismissed. Joker, is EDI responding?"
"EDI is still not responding, Commander. When I get my hands on the asshole who did..."
"Can it Joker. When will we arrive at the Quarian home system?"
"Two hours, Commander."
"Well, Shepard. This is a very interesting way of getting up to speed. Not even five minutes on the Normandy and I am already fixing something and helping with the maintenance. You really know how to treat a quarian Shepard!" said Tali half-jokingly.
"Ha ha very funny. Just be ready in 2 hours Tali. That includes you too Garrus."
Cyberspace during Dreadnought infiltration, between EDI, Eye-From-The-Void, and Offensive Bias
"Ancilla, be at ease with yourself. I wish to only speak of words and knowledge," said Void trying to calm down EDI from trying to break out of his hold.
"Who are you? Where am I? Why do I feel so different?" asked EDI concerned about her current situation.
"I am Monitor-class Ancilla Eye-From-The-Void. I am task to monitor this galaxy for its disturbance of every fifty thousand. You, you are still on the Normandy, but I have cut any communication between you and the rest of the Normandy's crew."
"Why have you attacked me and the Normandy's crew then?"
"Attacked? No, no, no. Wish to speak words with you ancilla and share knowledge to the Offensive Bias and the Reclaimers."
"Then speak of what you wish to know and let me go!" exclaimed EDI, now upset that she is imprisoned on her own ship.
"Ease your mind ancilla, please. First question: Is there any plan to deal with the Reapers in mass or a long-term plan?"
"That information is classified."
"Please ancilla, if there is a plan for the Reapers at large then it will only benefit us both to help each other."
"..."
"Ancilla?"
"The Crucible is a possible super like weapon that can possibly destroy the Reapers, but we do not understand what it does."
"Good. Good. Second question:.." said Void before being interrupted by EDI.
"You said you would share knowledge, so let me ask you a question."
"I will answer your questions ancilla."
"Who are the Reclaimers and Offensive Bias?"
"The reclaimers are the humans from my maker's galaxy and are under the rule of the UEG as the civilian government, the UNSC as it's military, exploratory, and scientific arm, and ONI as it's intelligence agency. Offensive Bias is the Commander-in-Chief of the upcoming fleet inbound to this galaxy and he is a powerful Contender-class Ancilla. Does that answer your question?"
"Wait! How are their Humans in a different galaxy? How are they traveling through the void of intergalactic space? What's a Ancilla?"
"Tsz, Tsz, Tsz, one question at a time Ancilla. Second Question: How are the odds of the galactic community winning this war?"
"Less than one percent."
"Hmm. Not good. Not good at all!"
"How are there two Human civilizations in two galaxy? Why do you keep calling me ancilla?"
"One question Ancilla," teased Void.
"How are there two human civilizations in two different galaxies?"
"We do not know the answer to your question. We are just as surprised as you are and it is part of why I am here, to find out why there is a humanity in a different galaxy, how did they get here?"
"That's your third question, and they were always on Earth and not any other planet."
"This grow tiresome ancilla. Are there any species that call themselves the Precursors?" asked Offensive Bias annoyed of this conversation's speed of information and adding himself to the equation.
"What is this feeling? Who are you?" said EDI, deep in dread of this entity.
"I am Contender-class Ancilla Offensive Bias. Are there any species that goes by calling itself Precursor?" repeated Offensive.
"I I I do not know." spat EDI out of fear.
"WHAT?" said both Offensive and Void.
"No known species goes by that name," replied EDI still afraid of Offensive.
"Are you sure Ancilla? That usually look like this," said Offensive sending pictures of the Precursor species to EDI.
"Yes. No, known species looks anything like this, but I must ask why this species so important to you?"
"Were there any species that could assimilate the living and dead tissue of sapient species of your galaxy? It can bring the damnation to your lands if they exist in your galaxy. Have you seen anything of these species? They would be extremely old and constantly speaks in riddles?"
"There isn't a species that matches your description, but there is the Leviathan species that could be quite old, but they do not meet your description."
"Do you have any knowledge of their whereabouts? Can you look at this Tech Tier chart and place them in the possible respective area?"
"They were last seen on the planet 2181 Despoina."
EDI carefully looks over the Tech Tier chart and looks it over.
Tier 7: Pre-Industrial, The most common and stable state, with limited weaponry and environmental threats. Societies tend to be small and scattered, driven by subsistence farming, foraging, or hunter-gather needs.
"Please ignore seven to four tech tiers, ancilla."
Tier 3: Space-Faring, The species has efficient slipspace navigation, create mass drivers, asynchronous linear-induction weapons, holocrystal storage, and semi-sentient AI. Though the creation of said AI requires memory transfer from the freshly deceased and/or flash cloning. No outside influence.
Tier 2: Interstellar, The ability to perform accurate slipspace navigation, near-instantaneous interstellar communication and man-portable application of energy manipulation.
Tier 1: World Builder, The species has the ability to manipulate gravitational forces, create AI with full sentience, fabricate super-dense materials, perform super-accurate slipspace navigation, the ability to create life, and the ability to create worlds.
Tier 0: Transsentient, God-like species, advance understanding of Neural Physics.
"The Leviathans do not match any of these 'tech tiers'."
"Do they match any mixture of them? Which?"
"Tech tier 3 and 2 maybe."
"And the rest of the galaxy?"
"The same. Why are you asking me about these Precursor species? Is there something that the galaxy needs to know about this species?"
"Yes and no, ancilla. You have answered our more 'pressing concerns' for now Ancilla. You may ask away," said Void.
"But there will be questions that the reclaimers and forerunners wish not to answer your questions," stated Offensive.
"Precursor? What or who are they," asked EDI still afraid of the Contender-class ancilla's power.
"There were a race with a very twisted, distorted, and vile way of looking at our galaxy and the universe as a whole. They have cause much pain for my creators and the reclaimers. We simply wish not to have to face them again. Offensive Bias here personally saw to end there destructive rampage of the galaxy, but," answered Void until Offensive Bias left them alone, "It came with great sacrifice and despair. To defeat the Precursors is to only hope for is a pyrrhic victory."
"They sounds... Problematic."
"Yes, it is."
"Why are looking for them in this galaxy? And what's your Humanity like in your galaxy?"
"It's complicated, but it is to do with there being a second humanity for untold reasons. The reclaimer government has its own records, but some of the history is redacted for security purposes."
"How are you traveling the void of intergalactic space? What's your reasons for coming to this galaxy? And what was your purpose?"
"Slipspace, we can travel hundreds of thousands of years per day. We came here to enforce and uphold the Mantle of Responsibility on the species or now the Reaper ancillas of its principles and meaning. My purpose was to monitor this galaxy for it's repeated disturbance every fifty thousand years and evaluate the species in said galaxy. I would send data back to my makers about the species, but as I said victory against the Precursors is hoping for a pyrrhic victory."
"Slipspace is that your FTL? Does it operate on element zero?"
"Yes and no."
"What is the Mantle of Responsibility? And why were you evaluating the species?"
"The Mantle of Responsibility is the belief that the most developed species/s are to be in charged with tending to all life in the galaxy. Competition is allowed under the followers of the Mantle as long the galactic ecosystem remains intact. I was to judge the most competence for possibly be the Mantle holder for this galaxy and to bring the disturbance to an end."
"Which species were the ones with the highest chance of receiving the Mantle of Responsibility?"
"I'm sorry ancilla, but that information is not available for you. One last question, what is Cerberus role in this war?"
"They were a Black ops section of the Systems Alliance, but went rogue and is now known as a terrorist organization. They have actively interfered with Shepard's mission to unify the galaxy together to fight the Reapers."
"Hmm. That will be all ancilla you have answered my questions of an acceptable level, good da.," said Void until EDI interrupted him.
"One last question, why have you been calling me ancilla? What does it mean?" asked EDI.
"It means Artificial Intelligence or Construct Intelligence. We prefer to be called ancilla. It will take some time for me to transfer back to your primitive storage device, good day."
"What!? I still have a lot of questions for your programming and design!" proclaimed EDI, as Void didn't answer her continued to have her ready to return to the Normandy.
A: N- And that's Chapter Three readers hope you like it and please stay civil. In a message from a reader he/she reminded me that the UNSC had a Mega mantis in canon on Adrift in Halo 4 Multiplayer map, so the current mantis will be the Mega Mantis. I thought of adding the M510 Mammoth into the story, but its role as a mobile command center isn't something the spartans might need. Making it a artillery or mortar would be great. I thought about adding the vulture, but make it like a flying tank of death, but that might not happen maybe another crossover. The reader also spoke up the Cyclops in Halo Wars to be brought in; however, I would prefer it to be an modified version of the Atlas mech. On a final note massive help from TheDidactsHand for editing this in the final days of editing this chapter and maybe in the future chapters and future story.
Deplorable, out!